26 Jan On Educated People Who Would Vote for Santiago VS those for Duterte

JUAN SAYS: The kind of leader we vote for is a reflection of who we are as an individual. Thinking JUANs have the tendency to vote for leaders whom they can identify with, or share the same ideals with. Though, as Alma Moreno have said, we vote for the candidates we choose with reservations. We choose the lesser evil, the kind that would give better results, no matter how unpopular the means maybe. We are who we vote for and we deserve the kind of leaders we choose.

PLACE ADVERTISEMENTS HERE

Here is a thought from award winning film director Jason Paul Laxamana and why he has chosen Duterte as his candidate for president.

We certainly wish that arguments about the presidentiables are as intelligent as this. We would love the discourse.

Those who prefer Santiago are in their right minds. They have class. They have nice upbringing. They know what’s right from wrong. However, they might also be the “status quo” kind of intelligent. You know, those who would put high regard on the Mona Lisa just because the educated world looks up to it. Those who would pick a partner who is Mr. or Ms. Perfect — decent job, sound morals, perfect English, healthy lifestyle, clean shoes, slick haircut, clothes with matching colors as recommended by well-respected magazines, and typical educated middle class aspirations and idealisms. They would support a well-meaning advocacy because it looks like the moral thing to do. Like planting trees. Or having bike lanes. Or changing your profile picture to a cartoon character on a certain date.

Those who prefer Duterte may or may not be in their right minds. They know what’s right from wrong, but entertain the possibility that what is thought to be traditionally right might not be that infallible. They have intelligence, but “what if?” often pops up in their heads. Those who have the guts to reject the idea that the Mona Lisa is a masterpiece because they set their own standards. Those who would pick a partner who’s not so easy to appreciate — decent job but with an intimidating skull tattoo, charity work but with a tongue piercing, relatively healthy but with occasional engagement in vices (resulting in a Dadbod if male), full of politically incorrect jokes but capable of speaking in a university, a prankster at face value but actually with high, sometimes scary, will power and ambitions comparable to those of an inventor or an innovator or an animé protagonist. They may or may not care for certain advocacies and do not care if the moralists judge them.

Both are fine in my book. I could relate more with Duterte though — his unconventionality, his difficult-to-process image and idealogies, his being a risk to those who dare to love or be friends with him, his misunderstood darkness/humor, his love-me-or-hate-me swagger, etc. I see myself having those traits to some degree. And the antagonists I’ve always had in my own life? The educated do-gooders I described in the second paragraph (generalization of educated Miriam supporters).